Native American Press / Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 2006-07-28

              INDEX
NEWS AROUND INDIAN COUNTRY 2
NEWS BRIEFS 3
COMMENTARY/EDITORIALS 4
CLASSIFIEDS 7
Any society that
lives apart from
codes or laws
goes into stage of
moral rot
page 4
Twin Cities
UC Election
page 4
TEC Agrees to Collect
Another Meeting
Stipend While Doing
Nothing to Earn It
page 4
Red Alert for
All Minnesota Indians
page 4
Buck Jourdain's
Fitness to
Hold Office
Questioned
page 4
Red Lake Election Protested
VOICE      OF      THE      PEOPLE
By BiU Lawrence
A Red Lake tribal member
filed a protest with die General
Election Board in regard to die
outcome of the race for Chairman
in the Run Off Election of July
19,2006. Arcliie R. King, Redby
member, filed the protest, consisting of six specific charges. He
supported liis statements with an
impressive number of documents,
which included police reports,
individual affidavits and copies
of purchase orders. The charges
ranged from improper building
security, to violations of election
ordinance, to vote buying and
misuse of tribal resources.
The first item listed on die protest was "The Red Lake Agency
building was not properly secured
after die ballot boxes were returned
from the Minneapolis polling
site." This statement is backed by
a police report stating the doors
of building #68, the Red Lake
Agency, were left open during
the early hours of July 18. The
report was received and acted upon
shortly after 1 am., July 18.
King states the counting of absentee ballots was handled incor-
recdy according to Tribal Election
Ordinance, Chapter 1807, subdivisions .03 and .05. He states
'"Hie ballots were counted by the
Absentee Ballot Committee and
die Chairperson of the District
Election Board on the evening of
July 18,2006" and, 'The certified
election results were not properly
turned over to the Chairperson of
die General Election Board."
Our review of the Election
Ordinance indicates the material
is ambiguous and therefore subject to interpretation. Even so,
and setting this issue aside, the
protest contains serious charges
and substantiations.
King charges that Carrieanne
Spears was electioneering at both
the Redby and Ponemah polls.
Electioneering is described in
Chapter 1804.03 of die Bection
Ordinance as follows: "No person,
candidate or their representative
shall be allowed to electioneer
within 100 feet of the voting place
on election day. This includes
postering, signage, buttons, t-
shirt, etc. and any form of media
campaigning for a candidate."
The protest charges "Vote buy-
web page: www.press-on.net
 ■ We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
A weekly publication.  Copyright, Native American Press, 2006
ELECTION to page 3       Founded in 1988
Volume 19 Issue 6
July 28, 2006
A friend of mine dissents
By Bill Lawrence
A friend of mine, upon hearing
about Archie King's protest letter,
was ecstatic. He said, il'these statements can be proved true tlirough
an investigation, Jourdain and
his crowd will be through at Red
Lake.
Probably not, I said.
What? He fairly shouted at me.
I told him, it doesn't mean
much. The chances that the Election Board will take him down are
slim-to-non.
My friend was angry and
crushed. He said, then why do you
bother? What's the use of caring or
trying lo make a difference? All
your words and effort in publishing
the Ojibwe News are futile.
I told him we'd been through it
all before. I reminded him the Red
Lake Election Ordinance says the
decision of the Election Board is
final. Election Boards have mled
against a declared foul and the
courts (of dominant culture) supported that position on the basis of
respecting tribal sovereignty.
That's why Buck Jourdain likes
TS (tribal sovereignty) so well,
he said. [Incidentally, there's
another meaning attached to the
acronym TS—you all know it.
And unfortunately it applies here
just as apdy].
You're right, I said. Buck and
most all of the other tribal chairmen in the nation, can, and do, use
it to deny civil rights. They have
the power to choose the members
of all tribal boards, including die
Election Boards, and they also
choose judges for Tribal Courts.
Tribal officials hold all tlie cards.
Remember the Mohawk drug
dealer who said he was immune
from federal prosecution because
ofTS? Well as it turned out, he was
out of luck [IS]. This was a case
that attracted sufficient attention
by the feds that they stepped in and
nabbed him.
This case was just one-out of
thousands that don't get the necessary attention from the federal
authorities. But I digress—back
to our discussion.
Well, what about the people who have come forward?
They're at risk.
Yes diey are.
Then why should they have
bodiered at all?
In answer to, why should they
bother? I ney do so because they
are patriots. They wdl take the
risk of raising their heads and
voicing their dissatisfaction because they know they are speaking for those who are afraid, or
unable, to do it.
It's dangerous for these people
DISSENT to page 3
Detroit Lakes has Anishinabe Center
By Diane White
The Anishinaabe Center in
Detroit Lakes was incorporated
into a non-profit charity in 1999.
Their primary purpose is to provide services to the Indian community and others in the Detroit
Lakes area who are effected by
cultural disadvantage. Tlie Center
currendy operates an Art Gallery^
thai selis Indian art works. TJiey
also provide diabetes education,
health programming, a healing
group, and a human rights task
force.
Throughout the years the program revenue has mosdy come
from grants, charitable donations,
and revenue from art sales. See
Chart 1: Revenue by Year—this
chart demonstrates die meager
beginnings, a rich mid-life, and
a settling down of revenues in
the most recent years, which
CENTER to page 6
REVENUE BY YEAR
Tabid: AnlsbtnaabeCenter
fto-STd of Director %
iff
I
"M*
»l
Marvin Manypennv
Ex ecu live Dlredor
Executive Dlredor
Executive Dlredor
Bwntce Grandbots
Chainnan
Bemtca Grandbots
Chainnan
Bernice Grandbois
Lyman Roberts. Sr.
Director
LYman Roberts. Sr,
Director
Joe Potter
Vice Chairman
Russ Roerlnq
Dire dor
Russ Roerlnq
Director
Stephanie Williams
Director
Francis Clark
Director
Francis Clark
Director
Lenny Potter
Dlredor
Linda Bellanger
Dire dor
Linda BeDanger
Director
Connie Enqebretson
Dlredor
Lvnette Price
Dlredor
Mary Favorite
Treasurer
House Panel
Tries to Limit
Tribal Gambling
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Indian Uibes
would be blocked from building
Las Vegas-style casinos off their
reservations under legislation
approved by a House committee
Wednesday.
The bdl by Resources Committee Chainnan Richard Pombo,
R-Calif., takes aim at die trend of
"off-reservation gambling" or, as
some ciitics cad it, "resen'ation
shopping."
Although the trend is limited,
it's become highly controversial:
Some tribes have moved hundreds
of mdes and even sought to cross
state lines to find better locations
for dieir casinos.
"Instead of seeking to bring
economic development to the Indian reservation, they have instead
sought to bring the Indian reservation to wherever there is economic
development," Pombo said.
"This is wrong, and it threatens
both die future of Native American
economic development and the
integrity of Indian tribal sovereignty."
Pombo's bill, which passed
27-9, woidd amend the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988
to eliminate an exception that allows tribes to build off-reservation
with the approval of the Interior
secretary and die state's governor.
Tribes diat already had submitted applications by March 7,2006,
the day Pombo introduced the bill,
would be allowed to proceed under
a grandfather clause.
The bill still would allow tribes
diat have been newly recognized
by the federal government, or diat
don't have reservation land of their
own, to seek permission to budd
casinos. But those tribes woidd be
required to enter a "memorandum
of understanding" with local com-
PANEL to page 3
Investigation Cites Indian
Trust Officials
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Officials in
the federal agency that oversees
American Indian trust assets had
an improper social relationship
with an accounting firm and
pressured subordinates to give
the firm preferential treatment, a
government investigation foimd.
Senior managers in the Office
of the Special Trustee for American Indians based in Albuquerque,
N.M., golfed, drank and parried
with the executives of the New
Mexico accounting firm Chavar-
ria, Dunne & Lamey, which won
$6.6 million in contract work
over eight years, according to the
report by the Interior Department's
inspector general.
The investigation, first reported
this week by U.S. News & World
Report, found that employees in
the trustee's office "felt pressured
by diese senior OST officials to
continue to award work" to the
firm and that they feared retaliation for speaking out.
The officials' relationship with
the firm "created an appearance of
preferential treatment," violating
ethics standards and an internal
memo directing employees to
avoid close contact with contractors, Inspector General Earl Devaney wrote to department officials
in the letter accompanying the
report dated May 16.
The office was created in 1994
to improve accountability and
management of Indian funds held
in trust by the government
Special Trustee Ross Swimmer
said in a statement that he had
directed his managers to take new
ethics training as a result of the
report's findings.
"Any appearance of an ethics
violation at any level within OST
is a great concern, and I believe
diat the additional ethics training
wdl allow everyone to be fully
informed of the rules," Swimmer
said.
Accounting firm executives
said in a statement that they believe their contracts were awarded
under the appropriate guidelines.
They pointed out that the report
does not allege that they did anything wrong.
'We believe that OST management has acted appropriately and
that the (Inspector General's)
concern of 'an appearance of preferential treatment' for CD&L is
subjective and unsubstantiated,"
the statement said.
Devaney's report oudines how
the firm's executives and trustee
managers exchanged gifts of
meals and drinks, took out-of-
town trips to a major golf event
and played golf together almost
weekly.
An eight-page chart details
the dates of golf trips and meals,
which often fed just days before
contracts were awarded.
The office awarded, extended
and expanded the contract without
competition, the report found.
Donna Erwin, principal deputy
special trustee, said (he socializing referred to in the report
"involved only refreshments and
meals which may have given the
appearance of preferential treatment." But she believes that no
preferential treatment was given.
Devaney said die findings are
of particular concern to the Interior Department because they
go "close to the heart" of a 10-
year-old class-action lawsuit by
diousands of Indians accusing the
government of mismanaging billions of dollars in royalties from
their lands since 1887.
'The seriousness of this conduct on the part of the OST senior
management is exacerbated by the
nature of the contract, die sensitivity of the work involved, the level
of the OST officials' positions and
the mission of OST," Devaney
wrote.
LITTLE EARTH: THE TROUBLES
Reprinted with permission from City
Pages k^|
Another accusation of police misconduct reopens the old rift between
cops and residents at south Minneapolis^ Little Earth housing complex
by G.R.Anderson Jr.
An evening rain has just cleared, and
some of the residents of Little Earth
are emerging from their apartments
to enjoy the summer night. Vinnie,
a 36-year-old mother of four, is out
for a stroll along the grounds of the
low-income housing complex, just
east of Cedar Avenue South, in the
2500 block. Li ke most of the residents
of Little Earth, Vinnie is American
Indian. She's lived at the complex for
about a year.
It's just after 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday, and Vinnie is feeling cheerful in
spite of the previous year's troubles,
incurred since she moved to town from
South Dakota. She came to take care
of her mother, a longtime Little Earth
resident who is recovering from a kid-
neytransplant. Just a couple of weeks
back, she found herself atthe business
end of a knife in a confrontation with
neighbors who had been harassing her
mother.
And the rest of the family—well,
that's why she's carrying hertwo- year-
old niece with her as she walks. "Her
mom and dad are smoking crack right
now," Vinnie explains. "They smoke it
right in front of her. I'm like, it's my
niece. I don't want her smelling that
shit."
Vinnie tells this with the assurance
that her real name won't be used;
retaliation forspeakingout about anything is commonplace at Little Earth.
The baby's parents live in the apartment next door to Vinnie's, in a row of
dwellings thatface south toward what
used to be 251/2 Street, but recently
was renamed E.M. Stately Street after
one of the people who initiated plans
forthe housing complex more than 35
years ago. There's a steady stream of
folks going in and out of both apartments, a flimsy storm door clattering
behind them.
"Weed, cocaine, crack," Vinnie
continues, ticking off the drugs of
choice—aside from alcohol—found
at Little Earth. "People go to the
hospital and get drugs and sell them.
You can get a Percocet forthree dollars,
andaVicodinforfour."
There's a pause. Rain clouds still
linger, bringinganearlydarkness. Suddenly there a re kids everywhere, rid i ng
dirt bikes on sidewalks and makeshift
paths all around the complex. Teenagers dressed in athletic jerseys, ball
caps, and blue bandanas roam about
in groups, teasing, roughhousing, and
flirting with each other. Many of them
have been drinking: some are in local
gangs. Several older adolescent girls
are pushing babies in strollers.
Someone lights off some fireworks
in the distance. "I hear shootings every
weekend," Vinnie says, prompted bythe
rat-a-tat pops outside. "This will go on
all night, and something will happen.
Every weekend, they light off the fireworks just to fuck people up, so pretty
soon you can't tell what's a real gun and
what isn't."
In earlyJune, Little Earth was briefly in
the news foilowing the public d isclosure
of an incident on Friday, May 26, involving the Minneapolis Police Department.
That Memorial Day weekend had been
unseasonably hot in the city. According
toa police report, laterverified bysurveil-
lancefootage, cops arrived at Little Earth
shortly after 7:00 that evening to break
up a fight. Aftera long conversation with
the two officers, Lt. Rick Thomas and
Lt. Michael Fossum, one of the brawlers tried to flee, and was immediately
handcuffed.
Over the course ofthe next few minutes, the suspect, identified as Juan
Trinidad Vasquez, and the two officers
somehow remained out of sight of the
32 security cameras scattered about
the complex. When they reappeared
on surveillance video, one officer was
walking a handcuffed Vasquez to a
squad car. The other officer approached
and bumped into Vasquez, who doubled
over as though he'd received a blow to
the mid-section. Onlookers say Vasquez
passed out. Though Vasquez was, according to the tape and the incident
report, given "medical treatment,"
many eyewitnesses claimed that he
was detained in the back of a squad on
a hot day by himself—windows up, AC
off—for some 30 minutes.
Both of the officers implicated in the
episode were put on paid leave while the
MPD and the FBI conducted investigations. They returned to their jobs June
24 in a "non-enforcement capacity"
while the case remains open. Vasquez,
a 24-year-old American Indian-Latino
who does not-live at Little Earth, was
charged with a narcotics violation (the
incident report notes the officers observed him "with a baggie of suspected
crack cocaine").
The incident was made public 11
days later when Little Earth executive
directorBill Ziegler held a press conference outside the complex's administrative offices. Ziegler was joined there by
MPD interim Chief Tim Dolan, Deputy
Chief Lucy Gerald, and Third Precinct
Inspector Scott Gerlicher. About 100
residents, activists, and journalists
showed up as well. "We have worked
to make Little Earth a safe, hope-filled
community," Ziegler began on a conciliatory note, praising the response of
Dolan and Gerlicher. "We cannot allow
this incident to destroy the relationship
we've developed with the Minneapolis
Police Department."
If Ziegler, who has been on the job
for all of 18 months, was trying to walk
a fine line, it didn't work. His apparently cozy relationship with the cops
infuriated some Indian activists who
have long viewed the MPD as a mortal
enemy. The press, meanwhile, wanted
to know why Ziegler wasn't makingthe
tape ofthe incident public. "Does everyone want to see a big Indian uprising
here?" he countered. "How would that
help the residents? You don't live here.
You'll all go home to the suburbs. You
aren't stuck with the fallout from your
reports."
There was also a split between the
activists who were a ngry with the cops
and those residents who sided with
Ziegler's decision, and a fight neariy
broke out. The next day, Clyde Bellecourt, the longtime Indian activist
who had a huge hand in shaping Little
Earth in its infancy, held a similarly
contentious press conference. He called
forthe termination of Lt. RickThomas,
and the release of the surveillance
tape. Within two hours, Ziegler, citing
"ongoingtension," gave out DVD copies
LITTLE EARTH to page 2
Settlement appears close on
Indian trust lawsuit
By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - American
Indians suing the government
over billions of dollars in lost royalties say they are contemplating
an offer by members of Congress
to resolve their lawsuit for $8 bdhon.
The offer is considerably lower
than the $27.5 bdlion plaintiffs
offered to setde for a year ago.
But plaintiffs say they are considering it seriously, bringing them
closer dian ever to ending the
lawsuit, which has bogged down
the Interior and Justice departments for 10 years.
"Fight billion dollars is something I wish was higher, but I'm
glad they were able to bring
something forward that was
equitable," the lead plaintiff,
Blackfeet Indian Elouise CobeU,
said in an interview. "Can we
ever get near the total fair amount
that should be given to indivi dual
Indians'? I don't think so. I think
individual Indian account holders
would support $8 bidion."
Cobell filed the class-action
lawsuit in 1996, accusing the
government of mishandling more
than $100 billion in oil, gas, timber, grazing and other royalties
from Indians' lands dating back
to 1887.
In what has become a messy,
protracted court batde, the plaintiffs have won a series of district
court victories. U.S. District
Judge Royce Lamberth held interior secretaries Bruce Babbitt
and Gale Norton in contempt and
ordered the Interior Department
to disconnect its computers from
the Internet to secure Indian trust
data.
But the plaintiffs were dealt
a blow earlier this month when
the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit
ordered Lamberth removed from
die case, saying he had lost his
objectivity.
Plaintiffs offered a setdement
package last year, and Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chainnan
John McCain, R-Ariz., and House
Resources Committee Chairman
Richard Pombo, R-Calif., have introduced bills that would resolve
the case.
But the setdement amount has
been a sticking point
Cobell and one of her attorneys,
Keith Harper, said Monday thai
officials for the two committees
suggested the $8 billion figure
LAWSUIT to page 7
Audit finds
credit card
discrepancies
at Coeur
d'Alene Casino
Associated Press
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -
Nearly $340,000 in charges made
to Coeur d'Alene Casino company
credit cards by employees, including a trip to Budapest, Hungary, did
not have the documentation to support them as company expenses, an
independent audit has found.
The audit covered a 22-month
period ending in June 2005, and was
conducted by the accounting firm
Joseph Eve & Co. at the request of
die Coeur d'Alene Tribe's council.
The audit found that receipts
did not say why numerous meals
charged to the casino's restaurant
and buffet were business expenses; that a significant amount
of gasoline was charged to casino credit cards, including some
employees tiding tanks as often
as three times a week; and that
die casino acted as a lender by
recovering funds through payroll
deductions after some personal
charges were made on casino
credit cards.
AUDIT to page 7